One of the hardest parts of being a new vegan (or even an old seasoned vegan) is trying to keep up with all the new products out there. I must have spent over $50 looking for the "right" vegan cheese my first year being a vegan and I have over 50 vegan/vegetarian cookbooks in my arsenal but not all the recipes are the greatest. I’m the first born so I’m used to being a Guinea Pig and now I’m your Vegan Guinea Pig. So here are my recommendations and critiques. Let me know what you think!

About Me

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Vegweb.com's General Tao's Tofu

Amazing! That's the first thing you should know about this recipe. There are so many vegan recipes on the web and they are not all great but this recipe for General Tao's Tofu came very highly recommended and with it's own video demonstration so I had to try it. And let me repeat this is amazing!

True enough, it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but no one is saying that you should eat fried food dipped in a sugary sauce every day (unless you're feeling hormonal and then you have free license to do what you please!).

I would only make two small modifications to this recipe: double the sauce and double the amount of egg replacer. The directions were a bit vague on how long you should cook the sauce so I prepped all my ingredients ahead of time (the day ahead actually) and made the sauce at the same time I fried the tofu and let it cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally. I also recommend that you freeze your tofu ahead of time to give it a better texture.

To make this recipe a little more healthy I plan on trying this recipe with half the tofu and adding a ton of vegetables or just omitting the tofu all together and using the sauce for a vegetable stir-fry.

Without futher ado here's the recipe:

1 box of firm tofu

egg substitute for 1 egg

3/4 cup cornstarch

vegetable oil for frying

3 chopped green onions

1 Tablespoon minced ginger

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

2/3 cup vegetable stock

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

4 Tablespoons sugar

red pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon sherry (optional)

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

steamed broccoli

For Tofu:

Drain, dry and cut tofu into 1 inch chunks. You can freeze tofu the night before to get a more chicken-like consistency, but it isn't necessary. Mix the egg replacer as specified on the box and add an additional 3 tablespoons water. Dip tofu in egg replacer/water mixture and coat completely. Sprinkle 3/4 cup cornstarch over tofu and coat completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn't clump up at the bottom of the bowl.Heat oil in pan and fry tofu pieces until golden. Drain oil.

4 comments:

I would add that rather than dipping your tofu bits, it's much much easier to a) put your tofu in a baggieb) dump the previously mixed egg replacer in, and gently smoosh around to coat everythingc) now dump in your cornstarch. close the bag and shake it all up a bit.

yep, things stick together a bit - so? they come apart (I used 2 forks) when you're cooking them, and it sure saves time & mess.